Soft capsules are widely used in fields such as medical and pharmaceutical products and foods. Gelatin is widely used as the chief component of the shell of such soft capsules, and gelatin is produced mainly from bovine bone or porcine skin. However, there is a problem that vegetarians, Muslims who prohibit porcine consumption, and Hindus who regard the cow as sacred, are not able to take or eat capsules containing gelatin of bovine or porcine origin.
Furthermore, uncertainty remains regarding the safety of such capsules from bovine spongiform encephalopathy in gelatin produced from bovine bone. Also, non-bovine or non-porcine gelatin not only is unable to provide the strength required for capsules but also has a problem that it has a lower cost performance and costs more when compared to bovine or porcine gelatin.
Under these circumstances, botanical capsules obtained by forming soft capsules without using gelatin are being proposed (for example, patent documents 1-4) listed below. These botanical capsules are produced from components of botanical origin and therefore do not raise the issues mentioned above that result from using gelatin of bovine or porcine origin.
Patent document 1: No. 2003-504326
Patent document 2: No. 2005-176744
Patent document 3: No. 2008-519075
Patent document 4: No. 2010-180159